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Lisseth Velasquez
Professor Batty
English 113 A
14 December 2014
What I Learned in Class
On my first semester of college and English 113 with professor Batty and the SI
leaders Zach and Doug helped me extremely. They helped me in many ways, but for the
most part they helped me with my writing skills, which werent fully the best or college
level. Throughout the semester they taught me to properly write an essay. I always had
trouble expressing my ideas and actually elaborating when I had something to say or
write. With their help I learned to properly write an essay not exactly using a format how
I was taught back in high school, but to actually have fun with it as long as I had
everything the professor was asking for and made sense. I was able to organize an essay
properly by first getting a hook to get my readers attention, having background
information on my topic and having a strong thesis statement those are the main things
that should be on your introduction. I have more trouble writing my intro than my actual
body paragraphs because I never know what to actually say on my thesis statement and
they sometimes dont come out as I expect them to be. Aside from the intro comes your
body paragraphs in which you have a topic sentence, evidence and elaboration. Lastly its
your conclusion paragraph, which pretty much you summarize everything you talked
about into a short paragraph and restate your thesis statement. Not only did professor
Batty help me with my writing skills but also my reading and critical thinking skills. I
was able to read a book and actually annotate it instead of not taking notes on it

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whatsoever and I was able to understand the reading with a great extent in other words
they were quite challenging, but I was able to understand them if I re-read them over and
over again.
I learned many things about myself in English 113A. I learned that I tend to repeat
myself on essays, use comma splices, and sometimes use commas were they should not
be. Ive been getting better at not doing these mistakes by actually going back to my
work and checking my errors, but I know I still have to continue working on them. I hope
I continue improving on my writing in general I know Im capable of writing college
level I just have to simply put more effort on it, which I know Im capable of doing.
Also I hope I improve on writing thesis statements because thats the main thing I tend to
struggle with on my essays; my body paragraphs can be good, but I dont have a strong
thesis statement to back it all up.
What I learned this semester would benefit me on the long run because I want to
major in child development and minor in psychology and I know those two majors
consist of lots of writing, reading and critical thinking. Ill definitely use what professor
Batty and the SI leaders taught me to help me get through college.